Worcester DA's office 6 for 6 on murder convictions in 2012

Monday

Jan 21, 2013 at 9:45 PMJan 21, 2013 at 9:50 PM

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The victims were six women ranging in age from 21 to 39.

Their unrelated killings spanned nearly four decades. Two were shot to death. Two were strangled. One was given a lethal dose of morphine. One suffered a fatal knife wound.Two were slain by their husbands, one by an ex-boyfriend.

Prosecutors in the office of District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. brought their respective killers to the bar of justice last year. Five of the murder cases were tried in Worcester Superior Court. The sixth was tried in Middlesex Superior Court under a change of venue.

The jury’s verdict in each case was the same — guilty of murder in the first degree. All six defendants were sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment without parole.

Solid police investigations and thorough trial preparation by experienced prosecutors were the main reasons behind the 100 percent conviction rate in local murder cases that went to trial in 2012, according to Mr. Early.

“Great investigative work by police, never yielding, and great preparation by the assistant district attorneys working together with the various detectives assigned to these cases,” Mr. Early said in a recent interview when asked why he believed all six trials led to first-degree murder convictions.

The six convictions for first-degree murder last year reflected a dramatic increase over 2011, when four Worcester Superior Court murder cases were tried and only one, a double slaying, resulted in two such convictions. Juries in the other three 2011 cases found the defendants guilty of second-degree murder, which carries a life sentence with a possibility of parole in 15 years.

The oldest of the murder cases tried last year was that of 65-year-old Ronald C. Dame, who was charged with the Jan. 6, 1974, slaying of 23-year-old Clara J. Provost in the apartment she shared with her 3-year-old son at 13 Highland Ave. in Fitchburg. Ms. Provost’s throat was slashed.

Long considered a suspect in the killing by investigators, Mr. Dame was not charged until 2006, when DNA testing linked him to the crime. Fingernail scrapings from the victim produced a DNA profile that matched Mr. Dame’s, prosecutors said.

DNA testing to identify a particular suspect was unavailable to police and prosecutors until the late 1980s, long after police launched their investigation into Ms. Provost’s murder. Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Quinlan prosecuted the case and gained the conviction. John H. LaChance was Mr. Dame’s lawyer.

Alex F. Scesny was another murder suspect whose own DNA was used as evidence against him. Mr. Scesny, 42, of Berlin, was found guilty of raping and murdering 39-year-old Theresa K. Stone, whose body was discovered Oct. 24, 1996, off Kinsman Road in Fitchburg.

Ms. Stone died from strangulation. Mr. Scesny was not charged until 2008, after his DNA profile was found to match a genetic profile derived from evidence gathered by investigators in the cold case. Assistant District Attorney Thomas E. Landry was the prosecutor and Mr. Scesny was represented by Michael S. Hussey.

Mr. Early said the Dame and Scesny cases highlighted the important role state-of-the-art forensic technology can play in the investigation and prosecution of crimes.

“The way they’re testing and utilizing DNA is so far advanced from what they were doing even five or 10 years ago,” he said.

Mr. Landry, who has been trying murder cases for the last 30 years for Mr. Early and his predecessor, John J. Conte, was also the prosecutor in the case of William J. Goddard, a 42-year-old Worcester man who raised an insanity defense to charges of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend, 30-year-old Kelly Brackley, Jan. 28, 2008, at Action Crash Parts in Webster, where she worked.

Mr. Goddard, was also charged with shooting Yograj Shivdasani, Ms. Brackley’s boss and new boyfriend, and with firing at other employees as he fled the building.

Mr. Goddard’s lawyer, Michael P. Doolin, did not dispute that his client shot Ms. Brackley and Mr. Shivdasani, but argued that he was mentally ill at the time and not criminally responsible for his actions.

Donovan K. Smith, 20, was found guilty in October of first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery in the Aug. 24, 2010, slaying of 21-year-old Michelle Diaz, a Worcester State University student.

Ms. Diaz was shot in the neck in her car on Fairfax Road during what authorities said was a failed attempt to rob her of money and marijuana.

Assistant District Attorney Michael D. McHugh, who handled the case for Mr. Early’s office, has been prosecuting criminal cases for more than 20 years, but this was his first murder trial. Leonard J. Staples was Mr. Smith’s lawyer.

Mr. Smith’s brother, 30-year-old Marcus Young, was also charged with Ms. Diaz’s murder, but Mr. Young was sentenced to 4 years to 4 years and a day in state prison after pleading guilty to accessory charges. The murder charge against him was dropped.

Daniel J. Bennett, who was hired two years ago by Mr. Early as his senior first assistant district attorney, prosecuted the case of Natalio Felix, 41, who was charged with the June 8, 2011, strangulation death of his wife, Denise Santos in the couple’s home at 16 Huntington Ave.

The case was moved to Middlesex Superior Court because Ms. Santos worked as a supervisor of support staff in the Worcester Superior Court Probation Department.

Mr. Bennett was also the prosecutor in the December trial of Asim Amran, a 33-year-old Fitchburg man accused of giving his 27-year-old wife, Faiza Malik, a fatal dose of morphine on or about Dec. 31, 2008, and then stuffing her body in a suitcase and disposing of it on the side of the road in Oxford.

Kevin J. Reddington represented Mr. Amran.

Nine other first-degree murder cases, including one with two defendants, were resolved short of trial last year after prosecutors allowed the suspects to plead guilty to reduced charges.

The cases led to two convictions for second-degree murder and seven for manslaughter. Prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge in another case after determining that the suspect had been misidentified.

In 2011, the cases of 19 people charged with first-degree murder were resolved. Of the four cases that went to trial, juries returned second-degree murder convictions in three and found the fourth defendant guilty of first-degree murder.

A total of 14 other murder suspects were sentenced after being allowed to plead guilty to reduced charges in 2011. Another first-degree murder case was dropped after the suspect’s purported confession was suppressed by a judge.

In Mr. Early’s first four years in office, from 2007 through 2010, nine murder cases were tried in Worcester Superior Court and two resulted in first-degree murder convictions, according to Timothy J. Connolly, a spokesman for the district attorney.

Mr. Early said his preference would be to try all first-degree murder cases to a verdict, but explained that there are reasons some cases are tried and some are disposed of by way of guilty plea.

The variables may include such things as mental health issues, self-defense or other mitigating circumstances, according to the district attorney, who said he discusses each case with Mr. Bennett and Mr. Landry before deciding what course to take.

“It’s not just a knee-jerk reaction. It’s thought out, discussed at length,” Mr. Early said.

“I’ve got a moral and ethical obligation to try these cases based on what we believe we can prove,” he added.

The district attorney said he was pleased with last year’s six first-degree murder convictions because his prosecutors’ efforts may have helped provide the victims’ families with a sense of closure.

“But, the bottom line is justice, not convictions,” he was quick to add. “It never has been and never will be about conviction rates. It’s always about justice,” Mr. Early said.

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